CNN’s Tapper: There Is ‘No Truth’ to Trump Attacks on CNN

Couple of votes in the Senate, but they do not have control of that chamber. >> all right, Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill with all the latest. Thanks so much. Now let’s turn to our law and justice lead in breaking news this afternoon, a norm shattering speech at the U.S. Department of Justice. President Donald Trump, who has long railed against the politicization of the Justice Department, this afternoon came to the great hall of the DoJ and delivered one of the most political speeches ever given there by a U.S. president. The president claimed he was, quote, turning the page on four long years of weaponization, referring to the Biden years. And then he launched into ways he apparently wants to weaponize the Justice Department against the news media and perceived political opponents. He started, of course, by airing grievances, some of them legitimate, with investigations and prosecutions involving him. >> they spied on my campaign, launched one hoax, and disinformation operation after another broke the law on a colossal scale, persecuted my family, staff and supporters, raided my home, Mar-a-Lago and did everything within their power to prevent me from becoming the president of the United States. >> he then turned to his support of attorney general and FBI director, and presented what seemed to be marching orders. >> the American people have given us a mandate and really a far reach, just a far reaching investigation is what they are demanding into the corruption of our system. And that’s exactly, I’m sure, what pam and kash and everyone else mentioned here and not mentioned is going to be doing. We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government. >> part of the order is also apparently include prosecuting those in the news media who do not cover him glowingly. >> and I believe that CNN and msdnc, who literally write 97.6% bad about me or political arms of the Democrat Party, and in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal. It makes no difference how big a victory I had. I can have the biggest victory in history. These networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative. And it has to stop. It has to be illegal. It’s influencing judges. And it’s it’s really changing law. And it just cannot be legal. >> it makes no difference how big a victory I had, the president said while complaining about the news media. It has to stop. It can’t be legal. Prompting the question, is the president suggesting that it should be a crime for the news media to report accurately that he lost the 2020 election? That, as his attorney general, Bill Barr, stated at the time, there was no widespread fraud that would have changed the outcome. Is that what he’s suggesting? This is all of a piece, of course, in his view of the Justice Department, starting just hours after his inauguration, when the president pardoned or commuted the sentences of every single rioter who stormed the Capitol on January 6th, nearly 1400 of them including criminals who smashed windows with police riot gear, sprayed police officers in the face with chemicals, attacked law enforcement with fire extinguishers, wooden planks, flagpoles. Last month, the Trump Justice Department tried to drop the charges against New York mayor Eric Adams conspiracy, wire fraud, soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions, bribery. Trump’s acting attorney general at the time, emil bove, saying explicitly that the Justice Department made its decision, quote, without assessing the strength of the evidence, unquote, against Mr. Adams, who has denied all wrongdoing. the White House’s reasoning for wanting the charges dropped, they wrote in a legal memo that they thought Adams indictment would interfere with his ability to help the Trump Administration with the deportation efforts against undocumented migrants. Then there’s the case of Republican former Nebraska congressman Jeff Fortenberry. He was facing charges for allegedly lying to FBI agents about illegal foreign money raised for his 2016 campaign. The Trump Justice Department withdrew the charges against him almost immediately after the president took office. Since inauguration day, the Justice Department has paused all investigations into corporate bribery. They’ve curtailed enforcement of a foreign agent, registration law, de-emphasized the criminal prosecution of Russian oligarchs. This as senior administration officials are eyeing the notion of closing the Justice Department’s public integrity section, which is the section that investigates and prosecutes alleged misconduct by government officials, Democrats and Republicans alike. Last month, President Trump signed an executive order pausing the enforcement of a law that makes it illegal for U.S. companies to bribe foreign governments over business deals. And then today, in front of a room full of DoJ employees and prosecutors, the president listed political opponents. We didn’t show you their names. And news media like CNN. We did show you their names that are providing not glowing coverage of him and suggested that we are committing crimes with no evidence and no truth to what he’s saying. Based on his remarks, President Trump does not seem to be opposed to the weaponization of the Justice Department. He seems to be objecting to someone else wielding that weapon. Now he has it, and who knows for whom he’s coming next. Let’s get right to our panel. Jim, I’ll start with you. Obviously there was stuff in there that we can all applaud going after fentanyl, going after cartels. But what what is this? >> well. >> it’s kind of what he’s. complaining about. I mean, you just front loaded this whole show for 10 minutes, rattling. Off every negative you could think of, including. >> cases like Jeff Fortenberry. >> where the guy. Served the sentence after being prosecuted in the wrong. >> district. And this. >> Department of Justice said enough’s enough. >> so, look, I. >> mean, I. >> could pick apart lots of stuff, but. >> I’ll. >> just say this. >> you know, I think what he’s talking. >> about when you think what I.s.I.s. said should be illegal. >> no, I think he’s talking about with media mistreatment is defamation, not crime. I don’t think he’s. >> trying to. >> fill. >> a gulag with Jake Tapper. >> and his friends. I think he’s trying. >> to say there’s something. >> wrong about sustained efforts that are in lockstep with one. >> party to. >> constantly malign. Somebody from the other side. He’s lived that. I mean, if you if you’re going to pretend there’s no media bias against President Trump, then it’s going to be a very short show indeed. I mean, clearly the media takes sides when it comes to President Trump, and he’s frustrated with that. And I understand it doesn’t mean it turns it into a crime or something. But, you know, he’s allowed to rail about it a little bit, I think. >> well, first of all, I’m not going to I’m not going to disagree that there’s media bias. Of course there’s media bias left right, center. And but the idea that the DNC, I mean, I think it would make people the DNC amused the notion that I am a pawn of theirs. But beyond that, you’re. >> more a rook. >> you’re not a pawn well, up there, I mean, we’ve had on people from the Trump Administration every day this week, presenting their case to the American people. Beyond that, though, and I’ll go to you. He’s talking about criminalizing it. This isn’t a if it was a grievance session about the media, I would have at it. You know, by the way, Joe Biden did that too. But but I mean, this was something else. This was talking about criminalizing it. >> well, look, I think all of us can agree that reporters should not go to. >> jail for doing their jobs. I mean,